


Candies and Coal

by Nirukee



Category: League of Legends RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:28:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27913798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nirukee/pseuds/Nirukee
Summary: G2 members celebrate St. Nicholas day together. They reflect on the year 2020 and try to cope with Perkz' departure.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 19
Collections: DreamServer 2020 Advent Event





	Candies and Coal

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, this is day 6 of the DreamServer Advent Calendar! Check out Piper_Ronnie's fiction to discover Fnatic's point of view on St. Nicholas day: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27913492 ;)

“Guys, since we’re all celebrating Christmas with our families and stuff, how about us celebrating St. Nicholas day together instead?” Jankos suggested.  
All his teammates, who were lazily spread on the couch, gave him an unsure look.  
“What do you mean? In Slovenia, we look at Saint Nicholas’ procession, but I guess that’s not the plan in 2020?” Mikyx asked.  
“Oh no. But you never celebrated St. Nicholas day with your family or friends?”  
Perkz, Caps and Wunder looked clueless.  
“I heard about it but it’s not really a thing in Denmark.” Caps said, glancing at Wunder for confirmation.  
“What is it about?” asked Perkz.  
“Well, St. Nicholas is a sort of Santa Claus. He visits children and rewards the ones who behaved well during the year with gifts and candies. If you’ve been naughty, he gives you nothing, and Krampus comes after you to punish you and give you coal.”  
“Who’s Krampus?”  
“He’s a frightening man dressed in black, and he has a whip.”  
Jankos rolled his eyes at Perkz’ smirk.  
“In my version, he looks rather like a demon with horns and chains.” added Mikyx.  
“That’s more scary actually. But anyway, I was just thinking about us having a celebration dinner, and me leaving bags of candies under your pillows.”  
His friends nodded in agreement.  
“Actually, I think this whole judgement thing is a good idea.” started Wunder. “I mean, we could ask Grabbz to play our St. Nicholas, to judge us and give us either candies or coal.”  
Once more, the teammates agreed and started to come up with other fun and trolly ideas.  
“But if Grabbz is St. Nicholas, who is Krampus?” asked Caps.  
“It’s Nicolo! He comes to punish us for ruining both the reputation of the game and the reputation of the professional scene.” replied Jankos.  
“Wait, no. It’s Carlos.” said Perkz.  
They burst into laughter. 

As they gradually stopped laughing, a silence took place in the room. Mentioning Carlos made them think about the imminent goodbyes they’d have to say to Perkz. Wunder cleared his throat, trying to break the awkward moment.  
“So...We ask Grabbz to be our judge on December 6th?”  
His teammates agreed enthusiastically. They kept chatting about it, when Caps’ phone buzzed. The midlaner took his phone out of his pocket, revealing the picture of his boyfriend smiling at him. A shy grin grew on his face.  
“Um, I have to take this call.” he said, jumping off the couch, followed by gossiping gazes.  
“Hello there!” he greeted while walking towards his room.  
Perkz looked at him going away with interest.  
“Things are going well between him and Rekkles, huh?” he asked.  
Miky nodded, half annoyed, half happy for his friend.  
“He has two conversation subjects lately: Among Us and Martin Larsson.”  
Perkz felt slightly nostalgic. Many things were changing lately. 

. . . . . .

When Jankos came back from the shop and took his face mask off, he sensed a delicate smell of cinnamon welcoming him. Mikyx and Caps were cooking Christmas biscuits but regarding how the messy kitchen looked and how they were bent over Caps’ phone screen, it felt like a first try. 

“Man, it’s so snowy outside.” said the jungler. 

All G2 members were now at home. Grabbz was already wearing a Christmas sweater and a Christmas deer hat, taking his role seriously.  
“Okay boys, let’s meet up.” he asked.  
Perkz left the living room to call Wunder, while the three other players gathered on the couch, facing their coach, who was standing. They were already wearing enthusiastic smiles at the fun game of the night.  
“Now that everyone’s here, I will tell tonight’s rules.” started Grabbz. “I will judge each and everyone of you on the following points:  
1) Your performance as a pro player during the year.  
2) How you acted towards your teammates.  
3) How you acted towards me.  
4) Tonight’s behavior: how well you cooked and how good you acted with everyone.  
I will tell you my verdict after dinner. Any question?”  
“Hm yes, sir,” said Jankos. “Are you sure about number 3? It might not be really necessary…”  
“Yes, I’m sure, and yes, you start the game with penalty points.”  
“That’s what I thought” pouted Jankos.  
Grabbz scanned his players’ faces, waiting for other questions. As he did, it crossed his mind that he was happy to be with them at this very moment. Although he was always acting like a dad towards them, he was almost the same age as they were. The friendship he had with each one was a bit different than the friendship they shared between them. He was glad to be both a part of this and a witness of the G2 family. He actually talked about it with Mithy during a phone call the day before.  
“Alright, you can go back to your businesses. Be yourselves and remember that St. Grabbz will be watching you.”

Mikyx and Caps started to go back to the kitchen, but Jankos stopped them:  
“Are you done soon with the kitchen? Perkz and I need to cook dinner.”  
“We’re halfway through.” replied Mikyx.  
“Come on Jankos, let’s play while they finish the cookies.” said Perkz. 

That’s how the six teammates started to play ARAM, switching roles during the games so that Caps, Mikyx, Perkz and Jankos could cook successively. Each player was in his own room, connected on Discord. As Perkz joined the game, he started complaining:  
“Man, I hate how sticky my fingers get when I cook.”  
A silence followed and he remembered St. Grabbz’ judgement over him.  
“I mean, I hate it but it’s always worth it to cook for you guys.” he smirked.  
“Hm-hm.” nodded Grabbz skeptically. 

Jankos had left his seat to Caps to go cooking, so the midlaner was still playing in the jungler’s room. Jankos joined him to watch the end of the game. He got close to the mic to insist on the fact that he left the kitchen cleaner than it had ever been. A familiar smell reached the midlaner’s nostrils.  
“Oooh pizza?” he asked.  
“You guessed it right. All for Miky’s pretty eyes.”  
“Not mine?”  
“Yours are too focused on Swedish food lately, there’s nothing I can do.”  
Caps chuckled while hitting the enemy Nexus.  
“Let’s see about that.”

As ‘Victory’ displayed on their screens, they gathered to eat the homemade pizzas. Perkz and Jankos had cut the cheese slices in different shapes: snowflakes, St. Nicholas hat, Christmas trees. They ate so many pizzas together over the years, it was almost their family food.  
“They’re pretty tasty, good job guys,” said Wunder. “Why didn’t you cook for us sooner?”  
“Yeah, it’s actually the first time!” added Caps.  
“And the last time.” murmured Mikyx bitterly.  
Even though he said that in a low voice, everyone heard and a heavy silence crashed in the room. The team was usually cheerful, and when they stumbled upon disagreements, they were arguing pretty loudly. But somehow, they didn’t manage to express their grief about Perkz’ departure. They kept avoiding the subject. They were not used to letting things unspoken, and not used to dealing with silence. At this moment, none of them knew how to act, especially Perkz.  
“Guys...I’ll come back to visit you.” he tried.  
“You don’t know that.”  
The Croatian stared at Jankos’ greenish eyes. He never saw them this cold with him.  
“Fuck, man. You can’t leave.” the jungler said.  
His gaze escaped from Perkz’, he stood and left the table. All his teammates were left wordless. It happened so quickly, it felt like all the sadness surfaced at once.  
“Don’t worry, Luka. We just hope you’ll be happy there.” said Caps, but his eyes were telling otherwise. The Dane never told him, but he felt as if he stole his place as a midlaner in his team, the team he wore the colors for years.

Jankos came back with a 2.5 kg barbecue coal bag in his arms. He dropped it next to Perkz, saying:  
“That’s how much coal Krampus thinks you deserve this year!” he said, half joking, half upset.  
The Croatian felt slightly relieved. The Pole didn’t exactly leave because he was overwhelmed by emotion, he had a joke in his sleeve. The atmosphere was still heavy, but everyone started to smile again.  
"You have to take it to NA, in memory of the best team you've ever had!" Jankos kept going.  
"There's no way I can take it on the plane." laughed Perkz.  
"That's not my problem."  
Jankos left the room again, leaving his teammates guessing he was up for another joke. Wunder took a bite in his pizza slice.  
“St. Nicholas has a gift for you, Caps.” said the jungler, hiding something in his back.  
Facing the midlaner, he showed his gift: the Summer Split MVP trophy. Caps chuckled.  
“Oh wow, I’ve never received any trophy like this before. Thanks Mr.Nicholas.”  
Slowly, the cheerful mood regained the gaming house. They all finished their plates and it was time for dessert. 

Wunder was the one who was in charge of dessert and no one expected him to head for the freezer, pulling out several ice cream pots. Facing his teammates’ questioning looks, he explained:  
“What better time to eat ice than winter?”  
There were five flavors: vanilla, lime, salted caramel, chocolate and mint, and orange. During the summer 2020, they shot an episode of League of Cringe where they told what type of ice cream they’d be. Wunder purposely bought one pot of each flavor. His teammates called him a polar bear, but still ate the ice cream happily. The cinnamon cookies were a good match. Perkz started to complain about being cold, but once more, he cut short and tried to catch it up to St. Grabbz. 

. . . . . .

They laid lazily on the couch, chatting and still eating biscuits as snacks. After a while, Grabbz said:  
“Okay, boys. Time to assess if you were good boys or bad boys in 2020. Take your shoes.”  
The German displayed on the table multiple bags of candies, the barbecue coal bag, and his notebook with assessments written on it. He sat on a stool, facing his team, putting his deer hat back on his head. The boys stopped chatting, holding their shoes, giving the coach their full attention. 

“A part of me wants to give you all pieces of coal for being dirty inters. But since things are greyer than that, I’ll grant you different points.”  
He pointed at the five pairs of shoes.  
“In Germany, St. Nicholas leaves candies in the kids’ shoes. So let’s say you’ll put the candy points in your right shoe, and you’ll put the coal points in the left shoe. As promised, I give you one coal for the inting.”  
He opened the coal bag and gave one piece of coal to each teammate. They obediently placed their pieces in their left shoe, giggling at this absurd situation.

“About tonight, the pizzas were surprisingly good. I’ll give you two 3 candies.”  
He opened a bag of round candies in colorful wrappings, and gave six of them to Jankos and Perkz, who placed them in their right shoe.  
“Even if you didn’t cook the dessert, I admit it was some quality ice cream. But since I had chills, I only give you one candy, Wunder.”  
The jungler and the ADC started to brag, but their moment of pride was short.  
“The cookies were smurfing, I’ll give you each 5 candies.” added Grabbz.  
Caps and Mikyx high-fived, happy about the success of their first try.  
“You all acted cool and not tilted during the night. Perkz, you tried not to complain, thank you. You were all kind to me. But since it was just fake to please my pretty eyes, I only give one more candy to each one of you.”  
“I’m starting to regret my stupid idea,” muttered Wunder. 

“Now, let’s talk about your individual performances during the year.”  
Grabbz pursed his lips.  
“For many reasons, it was not as good as last year. Three pieces of coal for everyone.”  
“Jankos, you were the Spring Split MVP. I guess I can only admit you deserve 5 more candies. However, you had a hard time adapting to the new meta, so take this one piece of coal.”  
“Hey, it doesn’t fit in my shoe!” protested Jankos, but the coach ignored him. 

“On the contrary, Wunder, you adapted really fast. Take 3 candies.”  
“Caps and Perkz, you managed the role swap pretty well. 4 candies for you two, 5 candies for the Summer Split MVP, and 2 candies for Luka’s leadership.”  
“Miky, you shone bright during the Summer Split. Take 4 candies too.”

Grabbz took a moment to look at his notebook.  
“Man, it was such a complicated year when I look back.”  
He looked up and kept going:  
“About your performance as a team. You won both LEC Splits and you made G2 the most rewarded team in Europe’s history. Let’s not forget about that. Then, you all behaved well during quarantine in China. You exercised, you practiced League, and Caps you had a good sleeping schedule on your own, while we know how difficult it is for you. You all tried to avoid negative talks, despite how difficult the situation was. It didn’t end up as well as we wanted, but please remember that you were the most successful European team during Worlds.” 

The coach ran a hand through his hair. 

“In the end, you all fought very well given the circumstances. I’m not saying that in a pitiful way, as if your performance was mediocre but at least you tried. No, I saw you overcome your fears and your struggles, and you absolutely killed it on stage. We didn’t stomp Europe as we did last year, our performance at Worlds was not as good as last year, but we are still among the best teams in the world. A bad year for us is still a year on top of the professional scene.”

Grabbz paused.

“Sorry, it’s not about candies anymore. I don’t think I told you enough how talented and courageous you are. I’m proud of you, boys. And yes, we’re all heartbroken to see you leave, Luka. I guess we all wished the Rift would change to have two midlanes. Life will go on, and we might always miss you, you might always miss us, but there’s also a chance that NA will become our rival-friend region and we’ll love to compete with you.”

Although no one else had been talking for the last minutes, Jankos turned to Perkz to continue the speech:  
“We don't know where we’ll be in a year ahead. Maybe Cloud 9 will be the perfect fit for you, and maybe Rekkles will be the perfect fit for us. But right now, I just wish that you’ll come back to us. Don’t forget about us, because we can never forget about you, Luka.”  
Perkz lowered his blue eyes.  
“I don’t know what to say.”  
“You don’t have to say anything. Just know that we’re grateful for the time we spent together.” Miky replied. 

That was it. They finally had the important talk. The atmosphere was turning peaceful. 

“Now Grabbz, you won’t eat all the candies left by yourself, will you?” asked Wunder with a smirk.  
“Yes I will. I’ll give you one more candy for your performance as a team and that’s it. I’m keeping the others for myself.”  
“I hope you enjoyed emotional Fabian because we won’t see him ever again.” said Jankos dramatically. 

. . . . . .

The rest of the night went smoothly. They played Among Us until late in the night. They were all very tired when they went to sleep, and maybe that’s why none of them noticed the bags of candies hidden in their beds. 

. . . . . .

The next morning, they discovered the candies. Some of them discovered the bags straight when they woke up, others had to go back to their rooms after their teammates told them about it. The European Champions turned into excited kids. 

“I knew you’d want to share!” said Wunder to Grabbz.  
“What? I don’t know who did this but I kept my candies.” replied the coach.  
“It wasn’t you? Then, who was it?” asked the toplaner, scanning his teammates’ faces.  
But they all looked clueless. Playing Among Us for hours didn’t help the Dane to find out who was their secret St. Nicholas. 

As the days went by, they would all forget about this detail, not trying to find the identity of the candy giver anymore. 

Perkz would keep the secret of his goodbye gift.


End file.
